”Spazzamento” – a story and memory from Gabriel Panagiosoulis and his days on board. He is currently living in Bronx, New York, with his family. We thank him very much for sharing.
I will wait for you.
The winches of the boat worked with a deafening noise, the steam that escaped with their every movement whistled, joined by the unbearable heat of the tropics, and the uproar of the workers on deck made the scene look like you were in hell.
They loaded coffee in sacks, the ones with the crimson stripe in the middle. He was in a hurry to finish loading as they had set departure at midnight.
Vasilis, a cook from Chalkida with his thick black mustache, was partying, was treated to the living room by the first engineer and brought a couple of zeibekiko turns. He wanted to forget his sorrow, his wife had written to him “Don’t come back, I don’t want you.”
The captain had also climbed on the wing of the bridge and was watching his girlfriend from Chile, who had just left…
The first engineer, a short man from Piraeus, played it somewhat dude, wearing Argentine pointed shoes with a heel. He had sent his girl back home.
It seemed strange to me that he always carried the same one, I was telling him why don’t you change women, you are always with the same one?
”I give you my blessing for this not to happen to you”, he said, and in the happiness of my ignorance, I thought him crazy.
The second engineer went down to the engine to warm up, sweat was running from everyone’s faces, and the sailors waited for the workers to finish shaking the boat: To lower the billets, to put mezzanines, boat doors, tarpaulins of the holds and wedges… Everyone was running in a hurry as if there was no tomorrow.
Only she was in no hurry. He was sitting under the street pillar waiting for me. The thought that someone was waiting for me had alienated me from other colleagues, maybe they didn’t care or were jealous, or considered me a bum, all of them showed that no one was waiting for them.
Greece far away, a dilemma, a psychological state where the senses excel, a closure to yourself, an attraction to the unknown, an attraction from what you had not known, what made it so attractive, the curiosity of adventure.
I jumped out of the boat; she waiting silently for me there, under the road pillar. We met. After a while, the hoarse whistle of the boat sounded. She cleared up her hoarseness by throwing water steam around her, which fell like wake-up drops on the bridge.
I looked at my watch. It still wasn’t midnight. After a while, the whistle sounded again. This time three long hoarsenesses, a point of farewell. I started running to catch up, the stern had opened in reverse, the boat was being held with a cape by the bow. The captain saw me and gesticulated from the bridge to hurry. Finally, they threw a rope ladder at me and I went up.
The captain saw me, a good boy from Thessaloniki, his name Alekos, the surname ended in -ides. When his girl would came in, they danced in the Twist living room… And I served them coffee and whatever else their soul said… And she stayed waiting for me, although we prayed for it to rain so that the loading would stop, this time our prayers were not heard; it didn’t rain.
